It was announced some time ago that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees — the Bombers’ Triple-A team — would be getting a new name. This to coincide with their renovated ballpark and stuff. As has become the custom over the years, the team let fans come up with names. And … here they are:

– Blast: A tip of the cap to the area’s rich mining history, and the sound of future New York Yankees hitting home runs at the newly renovated PNC Field.

This one will help local newspaper writers come up with punny headlines for years, so it’s got that going for it.

– Black Diamond Bears: Another look back to the mining days, combined with the ferociousness of the black bear.

– Porcupines: A “renegade native” of Northeast Pennsylvania that displays the fighting spirit of area residents.

OK, but seems more like an A-ball or independent league kind of mascot. Maybe it would work if the hats were cool.

– RailRiders: A reference to the area’s history on the rails.

Always good when you can invoke the idea of hobos.

– Trolley Frogs: A trolley frog is the mechanical part of a trolley, and Scranton is, after all, the home of the nation’s first electric trolley car.

The “after all” is what kills me. Because of course everyone knows this. That aside, I have this feeling, given the dumb times in which we lived, if I called someone a “trolley frog” there would be some sort of debate of whether I was being racist, so that could be cool.

I thought of Bombers too. Be a lot of cool logo ideas. Bombers dropping baseballs out of the bomb bay etc.
Plus Bombers ties in naturally with the parent team. Problem could be that minor league teams seem to change affiliation every 5 or 10 years so they may want to avoid obvious Yankee references.
I could live with Fireflies. Has a nice minor league feel to it.

Whatever name they choose, I hope that they remove “Wilkes-Barre” from it. After putting up half of the cost to purchase the franchise ($1MM), Wilkes-Barre did absolutely nothing – financially or otherwise – for it, while Lackawanna County spent tens of millions of dollars. Of course, they came out of the woodwork to get their cut when the franchise was sold to Mandalay, kind of like a deadbeat dad who ignores his kid until he’s about to sign a big contract.

That aside, why can’t they just resurrect the old “Red Barons” name? There’s a lot of goodwill toward it in the area, and it’s a fair sight better than any of these.

Woo! A local article for me! Anyway, this name change stuff has been going on all summer and to be truthful, I am tired of it. This area is filled with Yankees and Phillies fans. The club used to be the affiliate for the Phils before the Yanks came to town. The people around here who don’t like the Yankees want the name to be changed because “they can’t root for a team with Yankees on their jerseys”. Seriously.l It doesn’t matter WHAT they are called they are still the baby Yanks no matter what it says on the front of the uniform. Anyway, Craig, as you mentioned above with a mascot for the fireflies ANYTHING will be an upgrade over our current, what I like to call, “purple cow with a piece of macaroni and cheese through his head.”